


How Fate was Sealed

by dumbhotbitchknightgwaine



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23716132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumbhotbitchknightgwaine/pseuds/dumbhotbitchknightgwaine
Summary: A very short one-shot about Nimueh's role in the birth of Arthur.
Relationships: Ygraine de Bois/Nimueh (Merlin)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	How Fate was Sealed

How long?

How long had she been here?

How long had her mistress wandered, looking for her old friend with the golden eyes?

Dust swirled in the ashen light of dawn that fell through the grate. With parched breath, Nimueh moved towards the shaft of light, her shackles scraped across the floor, burning against the lacerations on her wrists. Her eyes closed against the faint warmth of the day; a small reminder that life remained in her bones.

Beyond the cell door, footsteps tapped across the stone, coming to a stop just before her.

‘No.’ Nimueh rasped, ‘The anwer is still no, Uther.’

‘You continue to defy me. So, you will continue to pay.’

Nimueh wrapped her fingers around the bars of the cell, hauling her frail body to its feet, ‘I do not defy you Uther. You ignore the laws of the gods and I will not do as you ask.’

Uther stopped, snarling, ‘You are a high priestess! You can bend the will of the gods! You will give me an heir!’ his rage spat through the bars.

Her chains grazed across the floor as exhausted, Nimueh rolled her eyes upward to meet the young king’s gaze, dry as sand in their sockets, ‘For every life, there must be a death.’

‘And I’ve told you, we can sacrifice any one of the townspeople…’

‘We do not choose who is taken. If I grant you a son, sire, I fear the gods will punish you for your contempt.’ her lips cracked with her defiance, ‘I will not let you hurt my lady Ygraine.’

The king squared his shoulders, a venomous whisper passing his lips, ‘Then you shall be made to. I am tired of waiting.’

The cell was flung open by the guards, two of them forcing Nimueh to her knees, the third clutching a wooden box. The familiar hiss of a Fomorroh squirming inside. She screamed as it’s ugly head was raised to her neck. The sharp sting of its bite burrowing into her skin; even with her divine powers, her resistance was ripped from her grasp. 

Under her breath, muttering against the stale air of her prison, Nimueh uttered the spell, an Aurelian shimmer in her eyes that pooled with tears, she felt the spark of life form in the pit of her mistresses stomach. And Nimueh knew the fates were sealed.

A slick draw of the dagger’s blade across her neck and the serpent was removed.

‘It...It is done.’ Nimueh wept, ‘And you, Uther, have sealed your fate.’

That night, cloaked in the dirt and oil black darkness, the celebrations could be heard for miles. Lady Ygraine had been confirmed pregnant.

Unbeknownst to her, miles above in the castle, Ygraine did not celebrate. She forged a smile or two, her mind clouded with worry. It had been a year since the court sorcerer, Nimueh, had vanished without a trace, and the good news wasn’t good at all without her old friend by her side.

…

The months passed, and Nimueh was freed by her own hand, rushing through the night from the castle. She found herself, barefoot and hungry, sailing to the isle of the blessed. A fine mist of rain washed over her as she waited at the altar. 

The moment of his birth crashed through her visions, the howls of Ygraines pain echoing into the veil. Greif fell in the storm and washed the land with its bleak sorrow and veil tore open. Nimueh took her place, guarding the entrance, as Ygraines pure soul drifted through the fog.

‘Nimueh.’ she smiled, floating towards her with delicate hands outstretched, ‘I thought I would never see you again. Where...Where I am? My son…I was…’

The high priestess, who possessed the power of deity incarnate, crumbled at the touch of her friend’s hand, that wained, faint, in her own. Tears carved into the Nimueh’s face, like streams through the earth of the forest., ‘I am so sorry, my lady. He made me.’ her voice quaked with guilt, ‘I told him he could not choose the life which the gods would take.’

‘You cannot apologise for the sins of my husband.’ Ygraine swept the tears from her friend’s face, ‘And you cannot stop my passing.’

Bowing her head, Nimueh knelt before the queen and placed a trembling kiss onto her hand, ‘One day, I shall join you on the shores of Avalon…’

‘And we shall be together in death as we could never be in life, my love.’

Nimueh lost her breath and Ygraine, now faint like a shadow burnished in gold, passed through the veil. A cold silence fell.

How long? 

For how long must the sorceress wait?

How long must Nimueh wander this life, before death would sweep her into the fair arms of her lady Ygraine?


End file.
